Biological control of ornamental plant diseases caused by Fusarium oxysporum: a review

Publication date: Available online 15 June 2016 Source:Biological Control Author(s): Charline Lecomte, Claude Alabouvette, Véronique Edel-Hermann, Fabien Robert, Christian Steinberg Ornamentals include all decorative plants suitable for indoor or outdoor uses. A large variety of plants is produced and sold on a worldwide market. One of the most destructive pathogenic microorganisms for ornamental production is the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum. Many F. oxysporum pathogenic strains can infect numerous ornamental plants during production and/or post harvest storage. Once the disease has broken out, plants are rarely suitable for commercialization. No curative control method is currently available. The best management of the diseases can only be achieved through an integrative approach in which biological control can play a major role in complement of varietal selection for resistance, provided that lines are available, which is rarely the case. Biological control methods on ornamentals are limited to the use of microbial biological control agents and botanicals, i.e. essential oils or plant extracts. An overview of the studies about botanical and microorganism use against F. oxysporum on ornamentals highlighted that the use of these methods is less than 2 decades and that they arouse increasing interest. Microorganism and botanical sources are countless; consequently, the choice of a screening method to select good candidates is critical. Both microorganis...

Source: Biological Control - June 14, 2016 Category: Biology Source Type: research